Rating Outcomes

Let's for a moment say that you run a business (if you don't already). You have forecasted your revenue for the quarter. Now consider the following scenarios:

1. Revenue for the quarter exceeds expectations by 50%
2. Revenue for the quarter exceeds expectations by 10%
3. Revenue for the quarter is as expected
4. Revenue for the quarter are short of expectations by 10%
5. Revenue for the quarter are short of expectations by 50%

I'm willing to bet that if I asked you to rank these scenarios from best to worst, you'd rank them in the order I've presented them. I'm also willing to bet that you'd classify 1-3 as successes and 4-5 as failures. Feel free to comment if I'm wrong.